


Twelve Days of Ch(xh)ristmas

by stellifyant



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: M/M, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-09-27 03:16:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17154257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellifyant/pseuds/stellifyant
Summary: A secret santa fic with twelve Killua/Gon shorts for user darth_fluffy! Merry Christmas, I hope you and the rest of the server like it!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darth_fluffy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darth_fluffy/gifts).



On Whale Island, it did snow regularly; it was just a shorter period than the mainland and started very late. It usually was bad news for the fishers, and everyone else who owned a boat.

The festival held after the first snowfall was essentially a last supper for the locals. Fish of all kinds and all levels of palatable would be served, everyone would try to have fun before the inevitable crash when the fishermen stopped bringing up food and they had to pay out of pocket for weather-value imports or scrounge as best they could.

There were many booths lining the streets for those who were trying to get just a bit more coin to pay for the food they’d need.

Killua wasn’t exactly a stranger to weird foods. He had been traveling the world for quite some time by now. When he was little, he just didn’t have what one would call a refined palette- actually, scratch that. He still didn’t.

Gon, on the other hand, lived on a small island for almost all his life. The residents of Whale Island seemed to have every way to safely serve fish imaginable, and then a few more that probably weren’t. He took particular pleasure in a peculiar dish that was called “seawater stew.” It was all brine and salt and absolutely nothing that Killua found even remotely edible.

All of the ships, including those that were fitted for transporting food, would be out fishing up the last they could. The locals rejoiced at the abundance of fish, and took to the festival of fish with gusto.

Killua was… not local, to say the least, and had been making all sorts of faces at the previously mentioned seawater stew.

He wasn’t bothered- he was almost an adult now at sixteen. He may have been fondly laughed at and patted on the head by Mito when he said as much, but it was still true.

Alluka, however, at thirteen, had every right to complain, and used each one liberally when they were in private, trying her best to not offend their hosts. She tried as much as she could stomach, and she got a touch nauseous on a few occasions, but otherwise was fine.

The real issue, Killua found, was that while he was a creature of few habits, he did try to maintain somewhat of a better eating habit than he did when he had first been exposed to the world off the mountain.

He had explained the five nutritionists his family had on call at all times to Leorio. He had been bracing for “That’s disordered eating,” but instead got a big old “That’s total bullshit and I’m going back to punch your parents!”

After much relenting, Leorio took a look at the plans Killua drew up to go back onto the diet and referred to it as “the most stringent and unrealistically textbook-perfect bullshit [he] had ever seen.” He had taken a liking to the word bullshit that day.

Killua was maintaining it, and it was a constant in the traveling life he had maintained with Alluka. That, and he wasn’t going to eat fish and homemade bread until the ocean ran out of fish.

He had asked many of the local fruit vendors, and then asked the sailors they had directed him to, but there was no getting around it.

Alluka, Gon and Mito were out that night. Mito just about had a conniption upon learning that Alluka had never had takoyaki.

Killua remembers the name and the taste never leaving his mouth for the rest of the day, and that’s really all he needed to remember.

He really didn’t want to be inconsiderate to the woman who opened her home, her cupboards and her pullout couch to him and his sister, but to get him to try takoyaki again, he would have to at least owe some sort of blood debt to the person.

Killua went up to Gon’s room and bounced a tennis ball against the wall for a bit as he had seen Gon doing in lieu of his homework.

After a few tosses, he stopped doing that when it was clear the wall was starting to wear there.

Killua just played on his phone for a bit until he heard the terribly loud bells Gon and Mito put on the door and called down, “Hello?”

It was unlikely to be the three of them, because Gon had insisted on taking Alluka halfway across the island to get what he claimed to be the best ones.

There was a withering pause- Killua got up and grabbed Gon’s fishing rod in the same motion, snapping the line and wrapping it around his hands for a garrote.

He sent his En out, catching just a touch of mischief and familiarity- Thunk thunk thunkthunk, thunk thunk thunk, creak. The door jingled and slammed shut.

He ran to the window, but only saw Mito, Alluka and Gon returning.

He quickly stepped down the stairs into the doorway where he found a basket with a delightful bird of questionable species and several pears lying on the ground.

The door jingled again, then Gon, Alluka and Mito ran in, shivering a bit.

“Killua!!!- oh.” Gon had called for him, but stalled on the a as he noticed Killua, slightly shaken, staring at the fruits.

“Oh, cool! Where did you get pears this time of year?” Gon asked, tilting his head.

“Ooh, this looks good!” Alluka said, running to the bird.

“Maybe you should wait a bit on that after all the takoyaki. Did you make that?” Mito asked, turning to Killua, who for his part was still slightly bemused.

“Uh, yeah. Wait on that,” he agreed, and pinched a piece off and carefully chewed through.

None of the too-familiar tastes of sour, sweet, or bitter poison, not even a trace.

He shrugged and picked it up, taking it to the counter. He recalled what Gon had said a few visits ago.

_“It’s a small island, I know everyone here, and they all know each other. There’s no need to worry about anyone finding you or anything like that. Well, there is, but only right now, and the sailors will probably only yell at us a bit.” Gon had said. They had been crouched behind crates and hoping with all their might the boat wouldn’t set sail before they got out._

They did, in fact, get caught- much to Mito and Alluka’s scoldings.

He studied the intruding bird for a bit until his stomach grumbled, then went for the silverware drawer he had finally started to get familiar with.


	2. Day 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops. Here u go, I kept forgetting to post the thing.

Killua sighed for the third time from the cute magic booth Alluka and Gon had set up.

“Did you run out of card tricks?” Gon asked. “I can still remember a few that uh-…” He frowned. “Never mind.”

The short two or three stints where Sneaky the Clown had been creepily amiable were long behind them- they dn’t heard anything in him for several months and were hoping he had finally descended into clown hell.

“No, it’s not that.” Killua looked at the booth kitty corner to theirs- temporary tattoos and surprisingly modern piercing equipment.

“You’d look good with one,” Gon said suddenly- Killua now showed the child visiting their booth the magic color changing act, from pale as hell to Christmas red in two seconds flat.

“Wait, one what?” he asked, gesturing to the booth.

“Either,” Gon decided, and Killua’s face recalled the Rudolph song Alluka had finally stopped singing after several hours and likely half his phone’s lifespan. “But what were you sighing about?”

“The piercings.” he said quickly, as if he wasn’t picturing the bluest sky, clear as the mirror’s eyes, slowly washing into a suffocating grayish-green cloud with streaks of white-hot lightning, in the process of being overtaken by a bright sun with neon green accents.

‘Ah, subtlety, one of my finest skills,’ he thought, and then tried to convince himself that the sun could have any accent colors and it wouldn’t matter to him… He just wanted it to be green.

“Which ear is the gay one again?” Gon asked, frowning and tugging at one earlobe and then the other.

Coming out had been during a meetup with the other two, and was essentially a descending order- Killua had set the meetup with the intentions of coming out, and once he finished his slightly rambling speech Gon immediately stepped up and agreed on a few of the male celebrities he had somehow ended up naming. Kurapika gave a quick nod and short statement.

Leorio hadn’t actually stated his sexuality, but the quick peck on Kurapika’s cheek and subsequent running off like a maniac was likely the best they were going to get. Kurapika had probably gotten a better one after chasing the other man down, as they were now in a relationship.

Killua, however, was not that lucky- no, he slapped the side of his head, he is lucky- he’s spending Christmas with the ones he loves, even if Gon doesn’t reciprocate the same kind of love.

“The left ear! Right- I mean, yeah! Let’s get our ears pierced!” Gon said happily.

“I can run the booth!” Alluka said cheerfully and quickly pulled the cards from Killua’s hand, bending the deck and letting them fly to the amusement of the child.

“This is a great idea!” Gon said happily, grabbing the money from his pocket.

“…Oh. We only, have enough for the piercings,” Gon said quietly.

“Here, I have… What was it? Right, I have some old earrings that I can’t sell anyways, you can use those!” the man running the booth declared, stilted, and held out a pair of white, bird shaped earrings.

Killua frowned at that- he took a deep breath in, and a deep breath out, and ran back to the magic booth. Unfortunately, it was not enough of a distance to avoid the awkward stares of Gon and the man.

“Killua, what’s wrong?” Gon called over the bustle of the festival.

“Uh, come over here,” he shouted without answering. “Hey, Alluka, you may not want to hear this.” he added.

Gon walked over briskly, being stopped in the midst of a ten foot walk by an old lady who said hi and talked to him about her grandchildren. He finished the then four steps without interruption.

“I swear, you seem to be more popular every time I visit.” Killua said, sighing.

“Sorry, Tilda wanted some advice for presents, because- reasons.” Gon paused. “I’m sorry, I should’ve remembered ear piercing uses needles,” he began.

“Oh, that’s not it… It’s, um, a family thing,” Killua said finally. Gon quickly ducked behind the booth and there was a short whispered conversation about how, despite the fact there couldn’t be witnesses, if there was a witness, they needed to have as little memorable details as possible.

“Aesthetic body modification, because they couldn’t just outright say body modification wasn’t allowed with how they were training us,” Killua joked.

Alluka had her earmuffs on and started singing some other holiday song about French hens.

“You’re brave and you’re here and you get to make this decision! I love you!” Gon declared. Suffice to say, the Freecs’ platonic “I love yous” is an exact recipe for instant fire red cheeks.

“…All right. Hey, Alluka! Want to get a temporary tattoo?” he asked.

Two winces and several hearts across Alluka’s face later, Killua froze and pulled out his phone- ignoring the Christmas songs that started playing when he unlocked it, he looked it up-

“Right. Right ear! Right ear!” he exclaimed, more flustered than he would have admitted three or even one year ago.

“You want your right ear done too?” The man asked. Killua had no intention of coming out to the man for the sake of an ear piercing, so Gon quietly explained they meant to get the piercings on their right ears, carefully pulling his out.

“Wait,” Gon added and stalled Killua from doing the same. Once Killua got the second piercing, Gon pushed Killua’s hair back again and stuck his tongue out in concentration. He very delicately and carefully put the other bird earring on for Killua.

Gon stepped back, touched Killua’s shoulders and gasped when he saw both earrings. “You look perfect,” he said, awestruck.

At that point, after both the gentle gesture and being called perfect, Killua would not get the Rudolph song out of his head for at least an hour. It had been quite some time since he went to ineffective shouting about Gon’s kind words or gestures to avoid looking starry-eyed and totally lovestruck, but he was reconsidering.

“Take a look?” the man asked- Killua shook his head. “Later, maybe, my ears are getting cold, though,” he said and ruffled his hair in a way that covered them. In no world would he question a “you look perfect” from Gon.

Gon got his piercing in the correct ear and paid for a little fish that was eating a quartz jewel while Killua was about to open his mouth and scream like a gay banshee.

“…Oh, wait. I didn’t tell Mito.” Gon realized, frowning- Killua still wanted to scream, but for a different reason. Mito liked being told important things ahead of time, and she only got angry at a few things, but…

Killua pictured her disappointed pursed lips and the way her brow would furrow a bit, and made a map of the booths in his head, to see if he could reach the scarf booth before she got back.

Mito, who had gone for hot cocoas down the street, came back to see Alluka wearing neither her hat with flaps on the side or her earmuffs, and instead donning Killua’s ear-flaunting pompom hat and Gon’s not-wide-enough-to-reach scarf.

The cute hearts on Alluka’s cheeks and the cheerful wave from the man leaning on the ear piercing side of the table was enough for her to deduce what happened, but she’d let them simmer for a bit.


	3. Day 3

Killua had just been woken up to be told that the others were going to a community center breakfast of whatever-the-hell-kind-of-fish-you-can-have-for-breakfast, but without an invitation. The dish he had tried the other day after getting the piercings had somehow made him seasick. On land.

He was actually mildly interested/ horrified about the breakfast, blame morbid curiosity. Alluka would likely tell him all about it, and maybe even show him some she ended up stuffing in her pockets to pretend she ate it.

The door jingled twice- that presence! He bolted upright and jaggedly ran down the stairs- a paper plate sat on the floor and the door wasn’t fully closed. He jumped over it, pulled the door open, ran out and looked around, then a second time at the decent hiding spots he had affirmed a few years ago.

Nothing.

Well, this time, the presence seemed very satisfied… He walked inside to look at the plate.

Three eggs laid on it, and each was drawn on with black marker. One had several curly mustaches drawn on it, and an acorn top glued on to boot. The other had what might have been the letter A if someone was very, very upset at the time of writing that letter. The other had what might have been a rainbow, if the colors had gone vertical.

He shook the eggs a bit close to his ear, and then sighed when he realized it worked.

“Skill number four hundred thirteen,” he declared, throwing out a random number, “listening to an egg in case it has a bomb…” It didn’t, and he cursed Milluki for the second time that day for knowing both what egg bombs sounded like and the feeling of raw egg in his ear.  
He broke them open over the pan and made himself a high protein and zero fish breakfast, and decided he was pretty satisfied himself.

Gon smiled on the rooftop when he smelled the eggs cooking. He had figured out the first time that if Killua was upstairs, the front door was just out of range- but when he was downstairs, the roof was just perfect, if he could balance on the highest part. He hopped back down and ran to catch up with Mito and Alluka, who both smiled at him.

“Are you sure he understood what they were? I still think I could’ve helped with decorating them,” Alluka said, clearly remembering Easter. Gon had broke four eggs and put uncomfortably close to realistic faces on four more. Killua broke two by instinct and then Alluka later accidentally dropped, picked up, dropped, and stepped on one. (On accident.)

The fourth one mysteriously disappeared when Mito carried them to the community center, and everyone was grateful for that.

"Fourth day of Christmas... Uhh..." Gon frowned and turned to Alluka. "What was that one?"

"Oh my god. Uhmm... Four quacking ducks, but did you really not plan-" Alluka turned and gave him a once over. "...No, no you didn't."

**Author's Note:**

> This has been a lovely holiday season so far- I have cookie related injuries! Apparently, repeating the same actions (rolling dough + frosting) over a hundred times, even when spread over three different rounds, will really mess with your muscles!
> 
> I'm wishing you the best, and that you've had or will have very good sweets at some point!


End file.
